The Return of Rocky Horror

Shadow Casts are back!

LET’S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN

Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash

Once upon a time, God said, “Let there be lips!” and there were lips and they were good lips. Sing it lips!

We haven’t seen those lips in such a long time.

As entertainment establishes worldwide have reopened their doors for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, live performances and interactive movie nights of The Rocky Horror Picture Show have been the last to return. It’s a lot easier to pull off Shakespeare in the Park, outside in the summer air, socially distanced — than it is to do the sex-crazed, close-quarters Rocky Horror.

Although many consider Rocky Horror to be a way of life, many cinemas only perform the show around Halloween time, where they find excuses to host costume contests and charge you an extra five bucks. So for many, this October was the first time shadow casts returned to their local screens.

I know that there were Zoom editions and various variations of performances virtually, and I’m sure many enjoyed and needed that outlet as Rocky provides a sense of community for so many people (many who probably needed it isolated mid-pandemic), but I wanted to save my first time back for a true shadow cast. My partner and I are both Time Warp specialists (she’s even an ex-Janet) and although we have the Blu-Ray at home (complete with one of my favorite home video supplements — callout subtitles), we just wanted to wait to experience the full thing when theaters were open again.

And we had our pick of the litter.

Just a simple Facebook Events search for “Rocky Horror” on Saturday resulted in over a dozen different options, all within about a 45-minute radius. On Halloween, Brad Majors himself, Barry Bostwick, was at a nearby screening.

Rocky Horror is back.

But we didn’t need to find a show last minute. We found our screening and purchased tickets months in advance. When Saturday came, we put on our t-shirts (one of Tim Curry’s Frank-N-Furter and one of the Time Warp directions), gathered up a few of our virgin friends, and promised them a good time.

When we sat down, it dawned on me for the first time: Rocky is different now. Not just because of masks or vaccines — but because the world around us has changed. The world has made a lot of social progress in the 45 years since the movie first came out, but that progress has been picked up rapidly in the wake of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. Some “jokes” that used to be “funny” aren’t funny anymore. Now, of course, Rocky Horror was never known to be the most PC place on the planet. In fact, it’s been a safe haven for those who felt misaligned or marginalized for decades. Unfortunately, it’s also been a place for people to act their worst. Many of the issues that plagued our status quo were turned up to 11 in the frenzy of a dark auditorium.

I witnessed that change firsthand on Saturday night. Our Magenta even had to preface the show with “We have some rules. I know that’s boring, but we need them.” The three-letter f-word was banned. Janet’s “sl*t” moniker was reclaimed and reframed. Performers were entirely off-limits. And one particular shout from the crowd of “Take it all off!” during a burlesque-esque moment in the show was met with groans instead of the probably expected cheers.

It seems as though Rocky Horror is finding itself in the modern-day. What was appropriate on college campuses in the 80s doesn’t fly anymore.

Let’s put it this way: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is for the weird, the forgotten, the outcasts, the refugees, the other, the marginalized, the pushed aside, the fringes of society. But it’s important for us to remember that those things are to be celebrated. Uniqueness is fun and exciting and liberating.

But if you’re there to be a creep, or use this as your time to be line-crossing and inappropriate — this is probably not the place for you anymore.

Rocky is back. And better than ever.

On the flip side, some rules were meant to be broken. Theater owners have long hated the ritual of tossing messy props like rice, confetti, and toast. None of those things were allowed — but that rule was lame, people snuck in their own props, and plenty of rice was thrown and toast was raised.

Rocky is now safer than ever before — but still defiant.

And you can’t forget the callbacks! That’s the part I focus on the most. I needed a bit of a refresher after a few years off, so before the show I studied up, popped in that Blu-Ray with the callback subtitles, and jogged my memory a bit.

I can see you Frank, but the virgins can’t!

It was a Days Inn!

Introducing new self-inflating tires, just kick twice!

Castles don’t have phones!

Easily my favorite part.

It was so good to be back. And I’m looking forward to making this a more regular part of my life again — not just during the spooky season.